


Faith in Fate

by Whedonista93



Series: Thrice Marked [6]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Crossover Pairings, F/F, Rare Pairings, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 23:53:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8033917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93
Summary: When Willow is called to help with an emergency in New York, Fate intervenes.





	Faith in Fate

“Woah! Nat, no!” The Winter Soldier bodily yanked the Black Widow off the man on the floor of the common room and tossed her onto one of the couches.

“What the hell, Barnes?! Do you know what that _thing_ is?!” Natasha spat at him over the back of the couch.

Bucky pulled Spike to his feet before standing defensively his soulmate and one of his best friends and answering calmly, “ _Spike_ is a vampire, and he’s my soulmate.”

That made Nat pause, “But, Buffy…”

“Okay, sorry, _our_ soulmate.”

“Vampire?” Nat arched a brow.

Bucky shrugged, “He’s got a soul.”

“Boys?” Buffy’s voice drifted in.

“In here, doll!” Bucky called back without taking his eyes off Nat.

Buffy appeared in the doorway, frowning at the scene that met her.

Bucky smirked and jerked his head back toward Spike, “Our guy owes me twenty bucks.”

Spike groaned as Buffy’s eyes drifted over to Nat before she matched Bucky’s smirk and shrugged, “Nat recognized him first? Huh… I was starting to lean toward Team Steve, but Nat for the win!”

Spike sidled from behind Bucky to behind Buffy and wrapped his arms around her waist while he propped his chin on her shoulder. It looked cute and romantic, but the vampire was still able to use the Slayer as a shield between himself and the assassin. Buffy rolled her eyes toward Nat – so the Slayer was aware of the ploy, and let it stand with fond exasperation.

“On the way back from California, we figured out that Spike had met Steve and Bucky during the war, and then Spike mentioned meeting you. They bet on who would recognize him first.”

Nat nodded slowly before meeting the vampire’s eyes, “Why were you following me, back then?”

Spike shrugged, “Thought you might’ve been the next Slayer called, but then you vanished back into the Red Room and a while later, along comes Little Miss Sunshine here.”

Nat couldn’t help her jaw dropping, “You thought _I_ was a Slayer?”

Buffy looked confused, “You _are_ a Slayer, Nat. Didn’t Giles… never mind. You never noticed the upkick in your strength and reflexes?”

Realization slowly dawned on Nat’s face, “I… I was with SHIELD, then. I had been hurt. I was… I was out. I just assumed they enhanced me somehow…”

Buffy smiled, a little sadly, “Nope!”

Nat flopped back onto the couch rather ungracefully, “Huh…”

 

“Stark! How long did Banner say we had before the effects of that thing were permanent?” Bucky yelled through the comms as he beheaded another vampire.

“Half an hour was the most accurate estimate.” Tony replied tersely.

“Shit.”

“I second that.” Buffy said, as she landed next to him, after flipping over two vamps and leaving nothing but clouds of dust in her wake. “Will.”

“Will what?” Bucky asked, staking yet another vampire.

“No! Buffy exclaimed, digging for her cell phone. “Will as in person. I need my Will person.”

“Oookaayy, then.” Bucky drawled.

“Willow!” Buffy screeched into her phone. “That long-distance teleportation spell you’ve been working on? The one you said you were pretty sure you had perfected? Time to test it.”

A pause.

“Now would be great, Will. Some idiot warlock released some magic bomb and now every vamp in a five mile radius of Times Square is having fun in the sun. It becomes permanent in… about twenty-five minutes.”

Thirty seconds later, Bucky jumped back from a bright white flash – which was cursing fit to make a sailor blush – and dragged Buffy with him.

Buffy just laughed, “I didn’t even know you knew half those words!”

The flash had resolved into a pretty redhead in a long, almost old fashioned dress and a long leather vest. Bucky recognized her from their brief meeting at the beginning of the collaboration of the Slayers and the Avengers. And from the hundreds of pictures Buffy had shown him.

Willow ignored her best friends admonishment, “I need to get to wherever this bomb thing was set off.”

Buffy pouted, “Of course you do.”

“At least three nests converged right on the spot to guard the damn thing.” Bucky growled.

“It’s the only way I’ll be able to reverse it in so little time.” Willow answered.

“Stay behind us, stay safe, save your energy. We’ll get you there.” Buffy hefted her Scythe and set off, Bucky and Willow following right behind in clouds of ash.

“Buffy and I are working our way to the release site with a witch in tow. Probably our only hope. Help clear the way if you can.” Bucky growled out over the comms. After hearing a slew of affirmatives, he gave his full attention to helping Buffy clear the path.

 

Natasha noticed the moment there was another redhead on the field. Even from a quarter mile away she saw, and felt, the woman’s appearance. Her presence was powerful – it felt similar to Loki and Wanda being in the room, but… light. She listened to Bucky’s terse explanation of an insane plan and determined the witch must be Willow, the woman who had briefly been at the facility for the initial contact and that the Slayers and Company spoke of incessantly.

Somehow, in the heat of the battle, Willow was separated from her protectors. She was holding her own admirably, balls of light flashing from her hands and taking out vamps left and right, but she was outnumbered, and the monsters were closing in. A protectiveness Natasha had never before felt the equal of rose up alarmingly quickly. She scanned the battleground around them quickly.

“Sam!” she spotted the Falcon, not far above her, “Give a lady a lift?”

Sam swooped down and scooped her up obligingly, “Lemme guess, you want dropped right in the middle of that fray?”

“Please and thank you.” Natasha pecked him on the cheek as he swooped low and she somersaulted out of his arms and landed in a crouch next to the witch.

“Friends of yours, or am I allowed to part their heads from their bodies?” Nat smirked at the vampires, momentarily frozen in shock.

Willow gaped at her. Before either had the chance to speak again, the vamps started moving again. The next few minutes were a bit of a blur. Natasha’s first clear memory, after initially meeting Willow, was when they reached the crater where the, for lack of a better term, bomb had gone off. The witch ran straight into the mess of it and laid her hands on its remains and then there was a glow. It was the same glow that had accompanied her arrival, but brighter. Blinding, but Natasha couldn’t look away – Willow’s eyes glowed and her hair bled to white.

She faded back to normal as screams filtered into the background noise and flames burst in Natasha’s peripheral, but she didn’t take her eyes off the witch. Instead, she crawled into the crater to help pull the giddy woman to her feet.

Willow smiled brightly at her, “Woo… I forget what a rush that is! Magic high, my friends call it. Anyway, now that we’re down saving the world, maybe you might want to be a friend of mine?”

Natasha was not proud of the fact that her jaw dropped without her permission, but she was fairly certain even super spies got a pass when they met their soulmate. She quickly slammed her mask back into place.

“That thing is safe?” she nodded to the remnants of the bomb.

Willow nodded, “Completely harmless.”

“Excellent. Thank you. I’ll inform the others.”

She turned away quickly enough to miss the confused and crestfallen looks that crossed the witch’s face.

 

“Why doesn’t she want me?” Willow buried her head in Xander’s shoulder and tried to fight the tears.

“Maybe it wasn’t mutual?” Xander tried.

Willow snorted into the crook if his neck, “You’ve seen mine. Pretty damn specific. And what I said to her… ugh, gods, where would that even fit? I kinda rambled.”

Darcy waved a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies under Willow’s nose, “Nat is like a million times more self-sacrificing than she’ll ever admit. She’s got this whole thing about ‘red in her ledger’ and a major guilt complex.”

Willow sat up, “So… she thinks I’m too good for her?”

Darcy shrugged, “Something along those lines.”

“Where can I find her?”

Xander’s eyes widened. “Will… no. I know that ‘determined, come hell or high water look’ and you do _not_ have to tell her that.”

Willow stood, “Xander, she’s my _soulmate_. Darcy?”

Darcy looked confused, but quickly shrugged it off, “Training room.”

 

“Do you think I’m too good for you?”

Natasha jumped, startled, “How did you get in here without me hearing you?”

Willow waved a hand showily, light dancing off her fingertips, and shrugged, “I knew you’d hide if you heard me. And we need to talk.”

Natasha shook her head, resolute, “No. We don’t. I’ve got too much red in my ledger. You… you’re… you’re so good it makes me ache. I can’t stain you.”

“You don’t have to. I’ve already done a damn good job of it myself.”

Natasha shook her head, “No.”

“Just listen. Please?”

Nat nodded.

“I had another soulmate. Before. And she… she was killed. By a human with a grudge. I… I went dark side. That whole white goddess thing you saw earlier? Picture the opposite. I literally absorbed every bit of dark magic I could get my hands on. Everything black and veiny and… dark. I fileted him alive. Tore skin from muscle and bone. And then, because that wasn’t enough, I almost started an apocalypse. And trust me when I say the Avengers wouldn’t have stopped it if I had carried through. Buffy couldn’t have either… she was the only Slayer, back then… red in your ledger, that’s what you called it, right? Trust me, I get it. So don’t you dare use it as an excuse to keep us apart. Find a real one, or get over it.”

 

“Uh, Will? Why are you hiding behind the couch?” Buffy asked.

“You know that thing I do where I kinda let my mouth run away with me?” Willow mumbled without rising from behind the couch.

“Usually more Xander’s thing, but yeah, you’ve been known for it on occasion.”

“I just chewed out a gorgeous assassin while simultaneously spilling the deeds of Dark Willow.”

“Why the bloody hell would you do that, Red?” Spike asked incredulously.

Willow heard a smack, an ‘ow’ from Spike, then from Bucky, “Nat’s your soulmate?”

“How’d you guess Natasha?” Willow asked, burying her face in her raised knees.

“One, there’s only so many assassins in the facility. Two, Nat and I are the gorgeous ones – and even if Clint was counted in that, he’s already paired.”

“And I’m standing right here.” Natasha’s voice sounded amused if a bit wry.

“No sex on the couch!” Bucky called as Buffy herded everyone out of the common room.

“Hypocrite.” Spike retorted as their voices faded.

Willow heard a slight shuffling, but kept her face buried in her knees. When she finally did look up, Natasha was sitting patiently watching her.

After a few moments of studying each other, Natasha opened her mouth, “I have never had much faith in Fate. I have never had much faith in anything. But I think, given the chance, I could have faith in you.”


End file.
